Car-heating system.



E. H. GOLD.

CAR HEATING SYSTEM.

APPLICATION FILED Amma, 1912.

1,077,525 Patented Nov. 4, 1913.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

E. H. GOLD.

CAR HEATING SYSTEM.

APPLICATION FILED M1115, 1912.

1,077,525, Patented Nov. 4, 1913 4 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

JMW

E. H. GOLD.

GAR HEATING SYSTEM.

APPLICATION FILED APB.15, 1912.

1,077,525. Patented Nov. 4, 1913.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

E. H. GOLD.

GAR HEATING SYSTEM.

APPLICATION FILED APB.15, 1912.

Patented Nov. 4, 1913.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

UNITED sTATEs i PATENT -oEEioE EGBERT H. GOLD, 0F CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

CAR-HEATING- SYSTEM.

i Specification of Letters Patent.

- Patented Nov. 4, 1913.

'.Application'lle April 15, 1912. Serial N o. 690,750.

To all whom t may concern.' p

Be it knownthat I, EGBERT H. GOLD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of employed for heating railway cars under the conditions there prevalent in which the supply'of medium to the radiating-surfaces can be made to depend directly upon variations of temperature in the car through the instrumentality of a thermostat located in the car.

Various car heating-systems havebeen Aproposed having for their objects automatic 'regulation by means 0f a thermostat located in the car, but 'for various reasons none of these-proposed systems have, so far as I am aware, successfully overcome the difficulties arising'from conditions peculiar to railway car heating.

Another object of the invention is to provide a steam 'heating system in' which two or more radiating units are vused to heat substantially the-same region, the supply of steam to one of which units1 is'controlled by a thermostat 'located in the car, so as to be responsive' -directly to temperature conditions in the car, whilethe other, which is preferably so arranged' thatl it may be used or not as occasion demands, is maintained, when in use, full of steam at a constant pressure.

A further 'object ofthe invention is to improve upon the vapor'for atmospheric pressure system of car-heating byproviding, in addition; to the automatic control which prevents thejsteam in the radiator fromappreciably exceeding: atmospheric pressure, an automatic control-'which is dependent direct-ly upon' the temperature of the car whereby, if the maintenance of the desired temperature'requires it, the amount ofv steam' may be so reduced as to-be less than sufficient 'tof'keep the radiatorf'filled with steam, thus m-akingit possible to 0btain a closer regulationfof temperature Tthan is possible 'with the vapor or 'atmospheric pressure systems-now infnse.

A further and specificobject '0f-the invention is to improve' upon the multiple regulation'heating systems shown in my patents'numbered 987,565, 987,567, l987,568

and 987,569, allgranted to me on the 21st day of 'March, 1911, and particularly to improve upon the 1 system Aof regulation shown in theilatter patent, the improvement being in the'direction of a closer and `more accurate regulation of the temperature maintained in the car.

The invention is illustrated, in a preferred embodiment, in the accompanying drawings, wherein- Figure 1 is a"fra'gmentary view, in perspective, showing the system applied to a railway car; Fig.' 2,' a sectional plan View of the' shut-'oif valves for the 'radiating units Fig." 3, a' diagrammatic View of the thermost-atically-operated motor employed for operating 'one 'of 'the shut-off valves; Fig. 4, a 'vertical section taken on line 4 4 of Fig` 2,' looking in the direction of the arrows, Fig. 5, a vertical section of the Avapor regulator, and Fig. G, a view similar to Fig. 1' showing a modification.

' Like characters' of reference designate like parts inthe several igures of the drawings.

Referringl to the drawings, A' designates the floor of the car, B the` steam train pipe located 'under the car and ordinarily supplied' with steam from the locomotive boiler, C the vapor regulator, D the constant temperature radiating unit, E the variable temperature radiating unit, F and F the shutoif lvalves for'the radiating units D and 15,-respectively, G the moto-r for operating the shut-oa valve F 'and H the thermostat for actuating'm'otor G, this thermostat being located'within the' car.

The radiating units I) and E are arranged so that they heat substantially the same region, that is to say, the same portion ofthe car,and may therefore be considered as constituting a single radiator, one unit being intended to-supplement the work ofthe other. Preferably the units 'are supplied with steam through a common supply pipe 10, 11 and discharge through a common discharge pipe 1Q. Each radiating unit has its separate cut-ofi' valve and these valves F, F are' preferably so constructed and 'arranged that 'when both radiating units are under'steam 'thecourse ofthe steam is throughV the unitsv in succession. The purpose of this 1s to avoid short'circuiting. By this arrangement a single vapor regulator or reducing valve nia)v be employed for both unit-s. This reducing valve or vapor regulator may be ot' any suitable character. I have shown in the drawings a well known vapor regulator interposed between the, sections 10 and 11 of the common supply pipe.

Referring particularly to Fig. 5, 13 designates a casing which is divided into a high pressure chamber 14, to which leads pipe l0, and a low pressure chamber 15 from which leads the pipe 11. The port 1G between chambers 14 and 15 is controlled hy a valve 17, the stem ot which7 1S, is connected with a bell crank 10 pivoted on a web 20. A thcrmost-atic member 21 located in the outlet or thermostat chamber supports a rod 23 pivoted to the, other arm ol the, bell crank 1t). The discharge pipe 12 leads to the thermostat chamber 22.

The operation of the vapor regulator above described is as follows: High pressure steam from train pipe .li enters chamber 14 and passing the valve 17 goes through chamber 15 and thence into the low pressure section 11 of the radiator supply pipe. lVith one or both of the radiating units D and E open the steam passes from pipe 11 through said radiating unit or units and when the same have been filled with steam the excess escapes through the outlet pipe 12 and coming in contact with thermostat 21 causes the valve 17 to close or throttle the port 16, thus shutting ofi or diminishing further inflow into the radiating system. It will be understood that with the heating system in operation this action is ordinarily a balanced act-ion, the valve 17 standing in such a position as to admit enough steam from the high pressure source to take care of the radiation loss and maintain the steam in the pipe 11 at atmospheric pressure or substantially atmospheric pressure.

The radiating unit or coil D, When used, is intended to be kept filled with steam at atmospheric pressure, the vapor regulator C serving to produce this result. The temperature of the medium in D will, therefore, be a constant temperature regardless of the temperature of the atmosphere in the car. rl`he 'flow ot' the heating medium from the eonnnon supply pipe. 11 tothe radiating unit, or coil F. is designed to be controlled in direct response to temperature conditions in the car so that the temperature of the inedium in this coil will not beconstant but will vary automatically in accordance with the reipiireinents for heat in the car. In the preferred arrmigeinent shown it will never exceed the temperature of steam at atmospheric pressure. 3y the term medium in this connection l intend the contents of the coil whether it be steam, vapor, air, or water of condensation.

The construction and arrangement. of thc shut-ottl valves is best shown in Figs. 2 and 4. Valves F and F are exactly alike so that but one need be described. rThe device consists of a casing divided by the webs 24 into four chambers 2G, 27 and 2S. Ar anged between the webs 24 is a valve consisting of the upper and lower disks 29 and 30 and connecting web 81. The valve has a stem 32 extending through the bonnet 327 and pro-- vided with the operating handle 34. A spring 35 bears .against the upper disk 29. The lower disk 30 has a waste port 36 which registers with the waste port 37 in the bottom of the casing. l/Vhen the valve is turned to the position shown in Fig. 2 so as to close the radiating coil D the waste port 36 communicates with a drip pipe 88 (Fig. 1) extending through the floor of the car. Pipe 11 leads into the chamber 25 of valve F. The inlet end and outlet ends of the coil D communicate, respectively, with chambers 2G and 27. Chamber 28 of valve F communicates by means ot' a short pipe 39 with the chamber 25 of valve F. The inlet and outlet ends of coil E communicate with chambers 26 and 27, respectively, of valve F. The discharge pipe 12 leads from chamber 28 of valve F. With the parts in the position shown in Fig. 2 the steam from pipe A11 passes directb7 into the coil E. With the web 31 of valve F at right angles to the position shown in the drawings the steam passes first through coil D and then through coil E. If the web 31 of valve F is turned at right angles to the position shown in the drawings the coil E is cut out. It will be seen that if desired both coils can be cut out, in which case the steam from pipe 11 passes directly to the thermostat 21 of the vapor regulator.

The thermostat H is located in the car. It is shown as consisting of the usual bar 40 made up of metals having unequal coefficients of expansion, which bar carries a contact 41 adapted to be brought against a contact 42 when the temperature in the car eX- ceeds the desired maximum. The contacts 41, 42 are arranged in circuit with a battery 43 and with the solenoid 44 of the motor G. The core 45 of the solenoid carries a stem 4G which is connected with the handle 34- of the valve F. A spring 47 is interposed between the guide 4S for the stem and a collar 49 on said stem and serves to return the handle 84 to its original position when the battery circuit is broken by separation of contacts 41, 42, this occurring when the temperature of the car is reduced to suoli point as requires the reopening of the coil E.

It will be understood that any suitablel form of thermostat could be used. The invention is not limited to the electricallv operated thermostat shown and described. Likewise any suitable form of vapor regulator' may be used in place ofthe one shown', and also shut-ofi' valves or equivalent devicesr of any suitable constructionin place of the four-way valves shown without departure from my invention'.

The system herein# shown and described may be operated asfollows.` If the weather is moderate coil E alone willI be used. The vapor regulator C will, of course, prevent the steam in the' coil from exceeding atmospheric pressure. However, the mean temperatureof the medium' in the' coil will be red-need below the temperature of steamx at atmospheric pressure if such reduction is necessary in order tox keep' the temperature of the car downto the right point. If the temperature in the car exceeds this maximum the radiator E is shutoff from the steam supply. It will thus remain closed at such intervals as is necessary to keep the car at the right temperature.

Various car heating systems have been proposed in which the object was to* cont-rol the radiator supply automatically in' response to temperature changes in the car. These systems have one and all failed so far as I am aware. Insome cases the failure has been due tothe fact that the effort was made to operate the thermostatically controlled valves against train pipe pressure. Train pipe pressures are often too highto make this feasible and' moreover, they are subject to such a wide range of variation as to make any suchl system of regulation entirely unreliable. Furthermore, the proposed systems ordinarily have operated on the principle of throttling the steam. The result of this was that freeze ups occurred whenever the throttlin-g diminished the inflow to a certain point. The systemof my invention operates in an entirely different manner and thereby avoids these difliculties. The thermostatically controlled rad-iator valve F works against a constant pressure which, in the preferred form of the invention, is but little, if any, above the pressure of the atmosphere. 1 Furthermore, the valve is a shut-off valve and not a throttle valve. IVhen the radiating coil is cut out the water of condensation finds free vent through the waste ports 36, 37. The vapor regulator C at such time is kept hot by steam which flows directly from pipe 11 to pipe 12 and thence to the thermostat chamber 22. Hence port 16 is at such times closely throttled so that the pressure in the supply pipe 1-1 remains low. If shutting olf the radiator involved cutting out the thermostat the pressure would rise in the supply pipe 1l to such an extent that the radiator valve F could not fail but leak, which would of course defeat the purposed thermostatic regulation. By making the thermostatically controlledV valve of the rotary type, which is feasible because of the low pressure handled, insteadv lof having the valve screw up and down as is usual, the operation of the val-ve by thethermostatically actuated motor is simplified and made more certain. When the coil E alone is used any amount of hea-t will be delivered tothe car ranging from nothing up to full capacity of the coil when kept filledl with steam at atmospheric pressure.'

I'f it be found that the coil Eis insufficient to' properly lheat the car the attendant will openI up coil D. The inflow of steam to coil E is temporarily shut-off, that is, until coil D has-become filled with steam. By the time this has occurred the temperature' of the car may have beenI raised to' the desired point. If not, as soon as that* point is reached or exceeded the coil E will be cut out by the operation of vthe thermostatic control. Thereafter the coil E: will simply supple ment the operation of coil D delivering such amount of heat tothe car as is necessary to keep up the desiredv temperature.

In- Fig.- 6- I havel shown a modification in which a separate vapor regula-tor is provided for each of the units or coils. In other respects the system is jrust like that above described. Referring to this figure, the steam enters the radiating unit D through a pipe 43, 44 in which is interposed the vapor regulator C. The discharge from the radiatingunit D goes directly to the vapor regulator C through pipe 45. Steam from the train pipe is admitted to radiating unit E by pipe 46, 47, in' which pipe is interposed a second vapor regulator C2. A pipe 48 leads from the four-way valve F to the thermostatchamber of the second controller.

While I have described my invention as embodied in certain preferred constructions andl arrangements, it will be obvious that modifications might be' made without departure from the invention. Therefore I do not limit myself to the particulars shown and described except so far as the same are made limitations in certain of the claims; my object being to claim, both broadly and narrowly, whatever patentable novelty my heating system may possess in view of the state of the art.

I claim:

l. In a heating System for railway cars, the combination with a radiator comprising two radiating units arranged so as to heat the same region, of controlling means for one of said units which maintains the me'- dium therein at arelatively constant temperature, and controlling means for the other unit which automatically varies't-he temperature of the medium in said unit.

2. In a heating system for railway cars, the combination with a radiator comprising two radiating units arranged so as to heat the same region, of controlling means for one of said units which maintains the medium therein at a relatively constant temp erature, and controlling means responsive directly to temperature conditions in the car which automatically varies the temperature of the. medium in the other' radiating unit.

3. In a heating system for railway cars, the combination with a radiator comprising two radiating units arranged so as to heat the same region, of controlling means for one of Said units automatically responsive to thermostatic conditions in the medium outflowing from said unit, and controlling means for the other unit automatically responsive directly to temperature conditions in the car.

4. In a heating system for railway cars, the combination with a radiator comprising two radiating units arranged so as to heatthe same region, of means for maintaining one of said units filled with steam at a constant pressure, and means responsive directly to temperature conditions in the car for proportionately varying the amount of steam admitted to the other unit.

5. In a heating system for railway cars, the combination with a radiator comprising two radiating units arranged so as to heat the same region, of means for maintaining one of said units filled with steam at atmospheric pressure, and means responsive directly to temperature conditions in the car for proportionately varying the amount of steam admitted to the other radiating unit.

6. In a heating system for railway cars, the combination with a radiator comprising two radiating units arranged so as to heat the same region, of means for maintaining the medium in said units at atmospheric pressure, and means for automatically varying the supply of steam to one of said units so as to vary its heating capacity from substantially nothing to its maximum heating capacity when filled with steam at atmospheric pressure.

7. In a heating system for railway cars, the combination with a radiator comprising two radiating units arranged so as to heat the same region, of means for maintaining the medium'r in said units at atmospheric pressure, and means directly responsive to temperature conditions in the car for automatically varying the supply of steam to one of said units so as to vary its heating capacity from substantially nothing to its maximum heating capacity when filled with steam at atmospheric pressure.

8. In a heating system for rail' ay cars, the combination with a radiator comprising two radiating units, a common supply pipe and a common outlet pipe for said units, an automatic controller arranged to maintain steam at a constant pressure in the common supply pipe, one of said radiating units being connected with the common supply pipe so that it may be continuously supplied with steam therefrom, and means directly responsive to temperature conditions in the car for automatically varying the inflow of steam to the other of said units.

9. In a heating system for railway cars, the combination with a radiator comprising two radiating units, a common supply pipe and a common outlet pipe for said units, an automatic controller responsive to thermostatic conditions -in the common outlet for maintaining steam at substantially atmospheric pressure in the common supply pipe and one of said units, and means directly responsive to temperature conditions in the car forvarying the inflo-w of steam to the other of said units.

10. In a heating system for railway cars, the combination with a radiator comprising two radiating units, a common supply pipe and a common outlet pipe for said units, an automatic controller arranged to maintain steam at a constant pressure in the common supply pipe, means directly responsive to temperature conditions in the car for varying the inflow of steam to only one of said units, and a valvefor shutting off the inflow from the common supply pipe to the other of said units.

11. In a heating system for railway oars, the combination with a radiator comprising two radiating units, a common supply pipe and a common outlet pipe for said units, an auto-matic controller arranged to maintain steam at a constant pressure in the common supply pipe, valves adapted to shut off the steam from said units separately, one of said valves being manually operable and automatically operated means for opening and closing the other of said valves.

12. In a heating system for railway ears, the combination with a radiator comprising two radiating units, a common supply pipe and a common outlet pipe for said units, an automatic controller arranged to maintain steam at a constant pressure in the common supply pipe, valves adapted to shut off steam from said units separately,iand means directly responsive to temperature conditions in the car for automatically opening and closing one of said valves.

13. In a heating system for railway cars, the combination with a radiator comprisii'ig two radiating units, a common supply pipe and a common outlet pipe for said units. an automatic controller arranged to maintain steam at a constant pressure in the common supply pipe, valves for separately shutting olf steam from said units which connect said units in series when both are receiving steam, one of said valves being manually operable, and 'automatically operated means for opening and closing the other of' said valves.

14. In a heating system for railway cars, the combination with a radiator comprising two radiating units, a common supply pipe and a common outlet pipe for said units, an automatic controller arranged to maintain steam at a constant pressurein the common supply pipe, two four-way valves connected with each other, the inlet and outlet ends oi each unit being connected, in each case, with one of said valves, the common supply pi e leading to one of said valves and t e common discharge pipe lea-din from the other, whereby steam may be directed into either of said units or through both of the units in series, and means responsive to tem perature conditions in the car for operating one of said four-way valves to open and close one'of said units.

vl5. In a heating system for railway cars, the combination with a source of steam at normally high but varying pressures, of a radiator comprising two radiating units arranged so as to heat the same region in t'ne car, valves to govern the admission of steam to said heating units separately, one of said valves being manually operable, a thermostat arranged within the car to operate the other of said valves, and means actuated automatically to prevent the steam in thc unit or units in service from exceeding a definite pressure lower than the normal range of pressures in the source of supply.

1G. In a heating system for railway cars, the combination with a source of steam at normally high but varying pressures, of a radiator comprising two radiating units arranged so as to heat the same region in the car, valves to govern the admission-of steam to said heating units separately, one of'saioi valves being manually operable, a thermostat arranged within the car to operate the other of said valves, and means actuated compartment, means for cont-rolling the supply of the heating medium to a portion of said units so as to maintain therein a substantially constant temperature andv automatic means for controlling the supply of the heating medium to other of said units so as to vary the heating effect of said radiator. 18. In a heating system for railway cars, the combination of a radiator comprising a plurality of radiating units arranged to heatthe same compartment, of heat-controlling means for a portion of said units automatically responsive to thermostatic conditions in the medium out-flowing from said radiator, and heat-controlling Vmeans for other of said units automatically responsive directly to variations in the temperature conditions in said compartment.

EGBERT H. GOLD.

W'tnesses P. H. TRUMAN, L. A. FALKENBERG. 

